Rumbelle AU Storybrooke Drabbles
by kpesto
Summary: A multitude of what started as drabbles in my notebook and sort of turned into a regular work along the way. All of the pieces are centered around a friendship between Mr. Gold and Belle in Storybrooke starting when she's engaged to Gaston and then the eventual relationship we all know and some love. Warning: Some major eye-roll-worthy cheese and the usual cliches at points.
1. Home Tour

"Well this is quite the view," she murmured while looking out to the foggy ocean. "I can understand why you live here now."

"The view's the only reason I can stand the stairs," he replied as he joined her at the window with the two drinks. He handed her the wine and kept the scotch for himself.

"Why thank you." With glass in hand she walked over to the globe to the left of the window. "Another precious heirloom from the grand old Windsor handed down from Mary to Elizabeth?"

He chuckled, "Just a plain old globe Belle."

She closed her eyes and spun it, "I wouldn't say plain old. It's beautiful." She stopped it and placed a finger on- "Scotland. What a coincidence. Your turn."

He stepped beside her and followed her example, "If I land on Australia…" He opened his eyes once the globe stopped spinning. "Ahh the Atlantic Ocean, although I hear it's quite wet 365 days a year."

She rolled her eyes, "Try again."

"Italy."

"Why must you get the city of pasta while I get the cold, dreary marshland?" she teased.

"I'll have you know Scotland is a beautiful land of mystery and—."

"I'm joking! My, you sound like a tour guide," she sipped her drink and turned to the small bookcase in the living room. "You'll have to accompany me when I go so I don't get swindled."

He opened his mouth to mention her fiancé's probable feelings on this, but thought better of it and watched her examine the small supply of titles.

"Before you accuse me of having a poorly supplied library, I'll have you know these aren't all of them."

She sighed and turned around, "Good. I was about to be extremely judgmental of the house to library ratio."

He held out his hand, "Come along and we'll finish the tour. I saved it for last."

If she hesitated to take his hand, he didn't notice, but he did notice she was sans engagement ring. Again.

"Belle you seem to have misplaced your ring again," he teased with what he hoped sounded like a light-hearted and not elated tone.

A grimace crossed her features, "It's just so gaudy and, it's terrible to say, but if I'm not around him or people who are to going to question why I'm not wearing it… I'm not going to wear it. Does that make me a terrible person?"

"No, it doesn't," he murmured. _It just means your fiancé is an idiot who doesn't even know what his future wife likes in jewelry, _he wanted to add.

"I mean, I know it's a symbol of us being together, but I feel like he does a good enough job letting others know I'm 'his and off-limits,' that I don't even need the horrible ring." She rolled her eyes again. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't be venting, but I really hate that damn ring and that he treats me like one of his prized deer, ready for a wall mounting."

He didn't know what lines he'd be crossing with the multitude of replies on his tongue, so he just opened the door they'd arrived at. He watched her expression turn from irritated to awed. She walked away from him and turned in a circle soaking up the view.

"How did you even fit all of these in here? How big is this room?"

He chuckled and left her to walk around the room several more times. These were the bittersweet moments he equally loved and hated. They always left a melancholy feeling behind when she was gone, but he decided to ignore that for the time being and instead enjoy her while he could.


	2. Accents and Lightbulbs

"Come in, the door's unlocked!" she called from the kitchen when he knocked.

"That doesn't seem very safe for this neighborhood," he murmured while he walked down the hall to her kitchen.

"I heard that, you rude man! It's Storybrooke, what's the worst that could happen?"

"Don't they always say that in that crappy teen vampire show you watch? Learn from the fictional story and don't say that!" he set down the drinks he was carrying and went to the cabinet to get glasses.

She smiled as he got progressively got comfortable in her home and laughed, "I can't believe you even remember that. We watched it _one _time because my DVR was broken. One time!"

"Worst 43 minutes of my life. Worse than a divorce hearing with Milah," he poured the cider and she brought the pasta and salad to the table.

"I'll agree, it's a terrible show, but I only watch it for one of the actors who has a great ac-." She stopped herself, blushed, and turned around quickly to get the bread.

His eyebrows raised, "Why Ms. French, I didn't believe you were so vulgar. You watch a show produced for a teen audience because one of the actors has a great ass? I had such a high opinion of you, but now…" he scoffed.

She blushed even more and took off her apron, "No! I didn't finish."

"Mhm sure, I cannot unsee you as a hormonal teenage girl now."

"Accent! He has a great accent. Happy?" she exclaimed and sat down with a huff.

"Oh you like his accent aye?" He asked with a smirk while laying his on thick.

She leaned across and smacked him with her apron, "He's English not Scottish you self-satisfied ass."

"Eck a bunch of glaikit fearties," he rolled his eyes.

"At least I can understand them when they're insulting a person. You just sound like you're spouting nonsense, which you usually are."

"How about we agree to disagree when it comes to our opinions on the English, lass?" He held up his glass.

She held up hers, "Agreed. Cheers."

They clinked glasses and ate the meal grinning the entire time. Again, he noticed, sans ring.

* * *

"Of course I need to change the light bulb. I'm not going to just leave it dark when I'm expecting company," she grumbled at the lazy Gold sprawled on her couch.

"I'm just saying let me or maybe your fiancé change it. You're clumsy; you'll end up breaking your neck."

She left the room to go get a light bulb, her dress flouncing and bare feet padding across the hardwood floor, "I don't need a man to change a light bulb. I can do it myself."

He rolled his eyes and stood up, "At least let me spot you, you stubborn woman."

"I heard that you rude man," she replied when she came back to the kitchen. "Fine, you may spot me."

He cringed as she climbed atop the table and switched out the light bulbs.

"There, easy," she said but then misjudged the step down to the chair and would have fallen to the floor had Gold not caught her.

He raised his eyebrows at her, "Don't need a—?"

She glared, "Shut up."


	3. Lunches, a Ring, and Caramel Things

It was when she came into the shop to bring him lunch that she was distracted by the jewelry case. He heard the bell and her heels and expected her to come right back, but was surprised when the clicking stopped after a few steps. He quit detailing an ornate mirror and walked out to the front counter where she stood looking down at the counter.

"Belle? Something caught your eye?" he asked teasingly.

She looked up with tears in her eyes, "I'm about to marry someone who doesn't even know anything about me."

She turned away before he could say another word and ran out of the store, leaving their lunch and a confused Gold behind. He glanced at the jewelry to see what had set her off and spotted a new piece he had put in two days prior. A simple silver ring with a blue sapphire, it all clicked.

He took it out, noting bitter sweetly as always, that Belle still hadn't been wearing her ring.

The next day when she came in he was already at the front counter.

"Morning Belle," he greeted her kindly.

"I'm sorry about yesterday," she smiled. "Pre-wedding jitters I suppose."

She opened up the bag she'd been carrying and spread out the lunch. Her ring was shining brightly on her finger.

He looked up at her and smiled, "Happens to the best of us. You look happier today."

"Really?" she asked.

"Yes," he replied with a nod.

"Good. I'm just," she sighed and her smile fell for a moment, "really trying…"

They ate their lunch in silence and he ignored it when she glanced in the case for the ring no longer there, and didn't see the slight decline in her demeanor.

* * *

"Am I going to die if I attempt to eat these hard candies?" she asked from the other end of his couch.

"No, I just bought them!" he replied with an offended tone while he changed the record and sat back down beside her.

She squinted her eyes at him, "You seem like the guy who would have hard candy sitting in a jar for 60 years and still give it out to children at Halloween."

He chuckled, "I would do that and you are somewhat like a child with a sugar rush," he dodged her badly aimed kick, "but I haven't lived for 60 years."

"Oh okay for 40 or whatever. I still don't trust these or you." She picked one out of the bowl and inspected it thoroughly through the wrapper.

"36 thank you," he scoffed.

"Psh, 36 and walking with a cane you old man," she teased while unwrapping the caramel. "Look! It won't even unwrap!"

"That's because it's caramel and sticky and you're inept at doing simple tasks!" he held out his hand.

She glared at him and attempted to get the paper off once more before handing it to him in defeat. His delicate fingers, graced with patience from working with countless antiques, unfurled the paper from the candy easily.

She groaned, "Of course."

He smirked.

"Smug bastard," she muttered and stuck her tongue out.

He placed the caramel on her tongue and laughed at her surprised expression.

"I bet you can't catch one in your mouth if I toss it up in the air," she challenged proudly.

He raised his eyebrows, "You doubt me?"

"I do!" she exclaimed and leaned backwards to grab another one from the side table. "Alright if you get this…"

"You'll have to admit that you hate listening to Granny's stories about her 'wild youth' just as much as I do, but you're too polite to say so."

"But I love listening to Granny's _completely_ believable stories about rum-running as a flapper," she replied innocently.

He laughed, "Mhm… but fine that's not a good enough admission. Hmm… you'll have to owe me a favor."

She contemplated her decision for a moment, "Deal."

"Alright, let's see if you can open this one," he teased.

She stuck her tongue out again, the half-dissolved caramel at the tip. She unfurled the second one with less finesse, but more excitement than he did, forcing him to chuckle.

"Alright 1, 2, 3…" she tossed it short and purposefully terrible, forcing him to dive for it. He landed in her lap, but there was a thump on the floor next to the couch. "Ha! You missed it!" she grinned happily and looked down at the floor and pushed aside his hand, but there was no caramel. "Wait, where is it? I heard it hit the floor!"

He wiggled his hand next to hers and she noticed the chunky ring he always wore. She sat back up and he gave her a wicked grin and stuck out his tongue, the candy on the tip.

Her smile faded, "How did you even…?"

"You seem to owe me a favor now Ms. French," he said looking up at her triumphantly.

"Whatever," she swatted at his chest with a roll of her eyes and grumbled something about being lucky before she grabbed another caramel.

She unfurled the candy and tossed it up, attempting to catch it, but instead letting it land on her nose. It rolled down onto his face and he laughed again. He made an internal note, as he continued to gaze up at her trying to catch caramels, to always have a vast supply of fresh ones in the house.

* * *

**The caramel scene is my favorite to this day since I wrote it, which is self-satisfied and prideful, but imaging this completely AU Gold and Belle scene makes me happy. I wanted to add a comment where she says, "You floundered like a codfish!" but even that was far too cheesy for me. The next chapter we get a tad bit more in depth to the actually storyline and it's a little less drabble-esque. **

**Seriously thanks to terra-angle, LynRward, and theatre fan for being the first to even acknowledge this story so quickly after it was published and in a way that I could see so I hope these next few chapters don't turn you away! You guys are the coolest.**


	4. Lunch II

The library was basically empty when it was his turn to bring lunch from Granny's, but he was too annoyed to notice. He didn't make it a habit of going to Granny's unless Belle specifically wanted it. There were too many unhappy tenants from his father's time as landlord of Storybrooke and he hadn't changed much of his father's ways after he ended up with all of his assets. Of course Granny's was also a viper's nest of gossipmongers. The latter was what had affected his current emotional state before his entrance to the library.

When he walked into the diner it immediately fell silent, per usual, but once the idle chatter picked up again as he waited for their order he had the misfortune of overhearing Ruby's conversation with a young August Booth.

"I don't even get how she spends so much time with him when she could be spending more time with Gaston. She's engaged to one of the most handsome men in Storybrooke and instead willingly spends time with the rudest! I mean did I even tell you about the way he picked up the rent from Granny last week?"

As August and Ruby and probably countless other citizens gossiped about his and Belle's relationship, and himself in general, he thought about how they were all correct. He had been the town shut in when he came back from university to care for his ailing father and once he'd passed away, he'd inherited the hard exterior his father had always exhibited to the world. To everyone in the town he was just the landlord they all loathed and feared.

Fear. A word greatly associated with Gold and yet, as he gave the money to Granny—leaving far too generous a tip—he remembered how Belle had never feared him. From that first day she started renting the apartment above the library from him, to the day she came to the pawn shop with flowers from her father's shop on the anniversary of his father's death. How she knew, he'd never asked, nor would he ever. Instead, he'd lowered her rent two months later and been pleasantly surprised when she brought him baked goods to thank him for the generous price reduction and stopped to talk about the incredibly old edition of Shakespeare's sonnets she spied on her way out. An edition that was currently in his workroom at home awaiting obnoxious gift wrap to be her wedding present.

Their friendship forged over baked goods, lunches, discussions of literature, sardonic humor, and a multitude of teasing comments about her clumsiness and his cane, all of that couldn't keep the anger, doubt, and disgust from corroding his mind during his brief walk to the library. Belle did deserve to spend more time with her fiancé. He shuddered while thinking about the somewhat brutish, but handsome barman who'd kept her attention for two years. He'd always hoped that her doubts and misgivings would give way to an end of the relationship, but when her father had proclaimed his joy when she mentioned Gaston asking for her hand, Gold knew she hadn't had the heart to turn him down.

It was with all of those poisonous thoughts that he walked briskly into the library and went to Belle's office to just drop her meal off with some excuse about a couple of priceless items to be delivered or a troublesome tenant. When he knocked on the door and received no answer he searched until he found her in the kid's section talking to Emma's son, Henry, and that soothed his irritation a bit. The smile she reserved, unwittingly, for her time with children never failed to make him a little more light-hearted. She turned and smiled at him before she left Henry to his own devices.

"I see that bringing me lunch has you agitated," she stated as she took the bag from him and headed back towards her office.

"No, no," he shook his head. "I just won't be able to stay because I got some new pieces that need some special attention as soon as…"

She raised her eyebrows and he knew his lie was weak.

"Oh really? You sure it's not the terrible Archie Hooper giving you trouble with his rent? Or maybe, no, it couldn't be people gossiping at Granny's?" She took out a fry and took a bite in faux contemplation. "That sounds too ridiculous of an idea though. Gossiping citizens bothering the terrible Mr. Gold?"

He took the cue and sat down at the table. She slid his box across to him.

She took a sip of her iced tea, "Who was it this time? Ruby? Sidney? Or was it truly Archie? I'm sure he gossips all the time with his patients!"

"It doesn't even matter," he grimaced and rolled his eyes.

"Okay 13-year-old Bobby. Let me know when the 36-year-old Robert makes an appearance so I can have a decent conversation."

He tossed a fry at her, "It's everyone in this damn town. Whenever they run out of fodder they always turn back to how I'm 'manipulating you' or 'paying you' or 'holding you against your will and keeping you from your fiancé' and I'm fed up and tired of it."

"Tired of the gossip or tired of me being engaged?" she asked quietly.

He jerked his head up, "What?"

"You heard me correctly, the gossip or my engagement?"

"The gossip, obviously," he stuttered while adding the qualifier. He glanced down to see her ring was gone again.

She sighed, "Well you're going to have to deal with a fresh batch because the wedding's off."

"Since when?"

"Last night. He tried to tell me I wasn't to spend any more time with you, Emma or Ruby which is ballistic because yes you and Emma hate him, but Ruby can't stop fawning over the wedding." She tossed another fry into her mouth. "As if that wasn't a controlling warning sign, he went through my books in my living room and told me which ones I had to throw out so that our children wouldn't see them. Mind you _To Kill a Mockingbird_ and other classics were included, which is worrisome on a whole different level. Anyway when I asked him when the discussion of kids was ever going to be brought up he replied that we'd 'obviously be conceiving during the honeymoon or even before the wedding' as if my choice in the matter or a discussion on the subject wasn't even allowed. It went extremely downhill from there. I might have broken a teacup on his head, when the ring didn't knock any sense into him."

They were silent for a moment.

"It's properly and truly over? You're not going to take him back in two weeks' time when he comes crawling back to you?" Gold asked.

"Honestly, if the teacup didn't get through to him, there will probably be a pounding on my door tonight. But no, I feel so much better than I have in months and I don't want that to go away."

He smiled, "Good for you."

"But I may need some company and a place to stay tonight if he does come around. He's only scared of two people and Emma's kind of occupied with Jefferson tonight. Would you mind?"

"Not at all."

"Thank you."

He wanted to kiss her right then and there, but knew it was definitely not the right time and a part in her wanted him to kiss her as well and didn't care that it wasn't the right time.

* * *

**Oh what a fantastic cliche, extra cheddar cheese sentence to end the chapter. Alright a few things 1.) I love Ruby and I actually hate when people just use her as the gossipy waitress who sleeps around and flirts with all the men and has no other personality so I swear I won't do that. She's just a gossip and hates Gold now. 2.) Yes I chose Robert as his name. Shoot me. 3.) I swear I need to just ship Emma with independence, but I didn't and I chose Jefferson. I'm going with a more season one vibe, if Belle had been in season one Storybrooke, and so it was between Jefferson and Graham. but thinking about Graham makes me sad. 4.) That's actually all I have typed up for now so we'll see when the next update happens. Sorry if you're getting emails at 3 in the morning for every update. **

**Oh also, wow this is a LONG note SORRY, Gold does not live in the pink house we all know and love. It's more of my own weird little place that I haven't entirely created in my mind besides being huge and having an ocean view. But since I've got your attention everyone should join the Gold's Kitchen fandom because that kitchen needs more love than a quick flash during an argument about using magic. **


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